Vehicle laundry systems have evolved from designs comprising only rotatable top and side brushes with long polypropylene strands toward the use of brushes and curtains with cloth elements made of rectangular, non-woven, synthetic felt, usually of rectangular shape. The mounting end of the element is formed by folding the material of the element back over a plastic insert and thereafter stitching the folded material to form an edge bead which is inserted into a slotted carrier or hub. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,055,028 and 4,018,014 issued Oct. 25, 1977 and Apr. 19, 1977, respectively, to James A. Belanger.
A typical hub used to carry the elements of a rotary brush has eight uniformly circumferentially spaced slots to slidingly receive the edge bead of the cloth elements. In addition, the hub is constructed to be clamped to a center shaft for rotation therewith. Each hub is approximately six or eight inches in axial length and a number of the hubs are arranged in axial series on the shaft to build up a brush of desired length.
Brushes and curtains constructed entirely as described above tend to be somewhat noisy in operation and require substantial effort to rebuild. Noise is a result of the fact that the rectangular elements move facewise; i.e., they translate in a direction which is at right angles to the planes of the elements so as to effectively slap against the vehicle surface to be washed. The task of rebuilding a brush or curtain after the cloth elements have worn beyond the point of optimum effectiveness is made difficult by the fact that the hubs or carriers must be at least partly disassembled, 100 or more individual elements removed and an equal number of elements carefully and manually inserted into the slots in the hubs or carriers. Thereafter, the hubs or carriers are reassembled to the shaft or swingable racks to produce an essentially new brush or curtain. The difficultly of this task is such that it may discourage vehicle laundry operators from performing the reconstruction task as often as would be desirable to maintain optimal efficiency and effectiveness in the vehicle laundering operation.